Homage to a Breach

Again, the whale awakens me,
A monstrous blur boiling the
The depths beneath me.

And churns.

It sounds.

Down to sunless worlds,

Down gliding, down devouring

And waits.

Waits for my penance, heartbeats
Buffeting the edge of gull wings.
Breath clinging to grayness,
Foul and forever drifting,

And drifting.

The monster breaches now.
Violating the palimpsest,
Drowning the dissolute and the damned.

And stops.

Freeze-framed in froth interminable,
Suspended beneath a moon sliver.
And the dead eye beckons.

And beckons.

But I haven’t the courage. I am
A bloodless heart pumping colorless ink.
And I row on.

And on.

To join with humanness, my sameness,
On land lusterless and blear-witted.
But I will come again if
Only to pay homage.

If only.


- GB Sanford